Abstract

Objective: To investigate the loudness dependence of the auditory evoked potential (LDAEP) in predicting response to treatment for major depression.

Methods: One hundred patients of Chinese ethnicity with major depression were divided into 2 groups, having strong or weak pretreatment LDAEP; the cutoff was the median of the LDAEP slope (for amplitude as a function of intensity). There were no between-group differences before treatment in terms of score on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), age or sex distribution. The LDAEP for 4 intensity levels (60, 70, 80 and 90 dB) was recorded before treatment. Each patient then received fluoxetine 20 mg per day for 4 weeks. The response to treatment was evaluated by means of the HDRS.

Results: At week 4, the HDRS score had declined by 44.3% for the group with strong LDAEP and by 34.4% for the group with weak LDAEP (t for mean difference = 2.584, p = 0.011).

Conclusion: Strong pretreatment LDAEP predicted a favourable response to treatment with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor in patients with major depression.

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by grant NSC 90- 2314-B-075-068 from the National Science Council, Taiwan, ROC, and grant KS92-015 from the Kai-Suan Psychiatric Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Competing interests: None declared.

Contributors: The study was conceived by Dr. Yu. Drs. Yu, Chen and Tsai were responsible for study design. Drs. Yu and Chen acquired the data, and Drs. Lee and Tsai were responsible for data interpretation. Dr. Lee drafted the article, and Drs. Yu, Chen and Tsai participated in the revisions. All authors gave final approval for the article to be published.